Maximilien Luce

Maximilien Luce
Born	Maximilien-Jules-Constant Luce (1858-03-13)13 March 1858 Paris, France
Died	6 February 1941(1941-02-06) (aged 82) Paris, France
Known for	Painting
Movement	Neo-Impressionism

Maximilien Luce (13 March 1858 – 6 February 1941) was a prolific French

Early life and education

Maximilien-Jules-Constant Luce was born on 13 March 1858 in Paris. His parents, of modest means, were Charles-Désiré Luce (1823–1888), a railway clerk, and Louise-Joséphine Dunas (1822–1878). The family lived in the Montparnasse, a working-class district of Paris. Luce attended school at l'Ecole communale, beginning in 1864.^[1][2]

In 1872, the fourteen-year-old Luce became an apprentice with

Luce spent four years in the military, starting in 1879, serving in Brittany at Guingamp. The next year, he received a promotion to corporal, and he became friends with Alexandre Millerand, who, in 1920, assumed the office of President of France. In 1881 he requested the restoration of his lower rank of soldier, second class. Carolus-Duran used his influence to get a transfer for Luce to Paris barracks. His stint in the military came to a close in 1883.^[3]

The prevalence of the new zincography printing process rendered xylography nearly obsolete as a profession.^[1] When the opportunities for employment as an engraver became scarce, Luce shifted his focus to painting full-time in about 1883.^[3]

Gausson and Cavallo-Péduzzi introduced Luce in about 1884 to the

With the exception of the years 1915 to 1919, Luce exhibited in every show at Les Indépendants from 1887 until he died in 1941,

In the spring of 1892 Luce traveled with Pissarro to London. Later that year, he visited Saint-Tropez with Signac, and in the summer of 1893, he went to Brittany.^[1]

Starting near the early part of the twentieth century, his identification with the Neo-impressionists began to disappear, as he became less active politically, and his artistic style shifted from Neo-impressionism, and he resumed painting in an Impressionist manner.^[1][9] Some of his paintings during this period depicted wounded World War I soldiers arriving from the battlefront to Paris.^[6]

Luce depicted a diverse range of subjects in his works over a long career. He most frequently created

Luce aligned with the Neo-impressionists not only in their artistic techniques, but also in their political philosophy of

Luce's choice of subject matter for his art was often rooted in his political beliefs. Through his paintings, he passionately demonstrated empathy and fellowship with the proletariat.^[1]

Family

In 1893, Luce met Ambroisine "Simone" Bouin in Paris. She became his model, companion,^[13] common-law wife,^[14] and wife. Bouin was usually referred to as "Madame Luce", even before their eventual marriage. She was frequently a model for him, appearing in many of his works, often partially or fully nude, other times depicted in scenes such as on a balcony or combing her hair.^[15] The couple's first son, Frédérick, was born on 5 June 1894, but he died fifteen months later, on 2 September 1895.^[11] Their second child, whom they also named Frédérick, was born in 1896,^[12] and in 1903 they adopted Ambroisine's nephew Georges Édouard Bouin, who had become orphaned. The couple got married on 30 March 1940 in Paris; just a few months later, Ambroisine died, in Rolleboise, on 7 June 1940.^[13]

Death and assessment

Luce died at his Paris home on 7 February 1941, at the age of 83. He was buried in Rolleboise. In May 1941, the Bibliothèque nationale de France held a memorial exhibition, and another memorial exhibition was mounted at Les Indépendants from March to April 1942.^[16]

Luce was among the most productive of the Neo-impressionists, creating over two thousand oil paintings, a comparably large number of watercolors, gouaches, pastels, and drawings, plus over a hundred prints.^[17]

The

Notre Dame de Paris, painted in 1900, sold at auction in May 2011 for US$4,200,000, setting a record for a Luce work.^[18]

Collections

Public collections containing Luce's work include:

Gallery

• 
  Man Washing, 1887
• 
  Port of London, Night High Museum of Art
• 
  Côte de la citadelle, 1892
• 
  Street Scene in Paris, 1896
• 
  Factory in the Moonlight, 1898
• 
  L’Aciérie, 1899
• 
  Montmartre, de la rue Cortot, vue vers Saint-Denis, c. 1900
• 
  The Quai Saint-Michel and Notre-Dame, 1901
• 
  Les batteurs de pieux, 1902
• 
  A Street in Paris in May 1871, 1903–1906
• 
  Paysage près de Méréville, c. 1905
• 
  The Port of Rotterdam, Evening, 1908
• 
  Le chantier, 1911
• 
  The Execution of Varlin, 1914–1917
• 
  Portrait of Doctor Marieux

References

Sources

• Clement, Russell T.; Houzé, Annick (1999). Neo-Impressionist Painters: a Sourcebook on Georges Seurat, Camille Pissarro, Paul Signac, Théo Van Rysselberghe, Henri Edmond Cross, Charles Angrand, Maximilien Luce, and Albert Dubois-Pillet. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
  ISBN 0-313-30382-7
  . Retrieved 20 September 2013.
• Clement, Russell T. (2001). Jill Berk Jiminez, Joanna Banham (ed.). Dictionary of Artists' Models. Fitzroy Dearborn.
  ISBN 9781579582333
  . Retrieved 22 September 2013.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Maximilien Luce.

• Bouin-Luce, Jean and Denise Bazetoux, Maximilien Luce, catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, Paris, Editions JBL, 1986–2005.
• Brown, Stephen, "Luce, the artist engage," Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, New York, N.Y. 2003
• Cazeau, Philippe, Maximilien Luce, Lausanne, Bibliothèque des arts, 1982.
• Fénéon, Fanny, Correspondance de Fanny & Félix Fénéon avec Maximilien Luce, illustrée par Luce de portraits originaux, Tusson, Charetnte, Du Lérot, 2001.
• Luce, Maximilien, Maximilien Luce, peindre la condition humaine, Paris, Somogy éditions d'art, 2000.
• Luce, Maximilien, Maximilien Luce, Palais des beaux-arts, [Charleroi] 29 octobre-4 decembre 1966, Charleroi, Palais des beaux-arts, 1966.
• Mantes-la-Jolie, Inspirations de bords de Seine, Maximilien Luce et les peintres de son époque, Paris, Somogy, 2004.

External links

• Maximilien Luce - Findlay Galleries
• Maximilien Luce on ArtNet